Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight, Andrews, C. [classic books for 10 year olds .TXT] 📗

“I don't get it,” Robin said. “If she didn't tell you herself first and neither of them showed how they were related, how would you know?” She looked poised to hear Gia insult her again, but instead, Gia looked at Mindy, who shook her head.

“What difference will it make now if they know,” Gia asked her.

“One of them is sure to betray you. You know that.”

“I always thought she knew anyway, Mindy. Was I wrong?” Gia asked, her eyes small and fixed on Mindy.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.”

“No, I don't,” Mindy said, looking around as if searching for a way out.

“Sure you don't,” Gia said, twisting her lips.

“What's going on?” Teal asked me. “What are they talking about now?”

I shook my head. “What is going on, Gia?”

She thought for a long moment, then shrugged. “Oh, what difference does it make anymore?” she muttered. “It was my idea to do it. I'll admit to that. I was bored,” she offered as a defense. “I wasn't here all thatlong, but it was obvious to me it was going to be a drag. The early nights, lights out, no television or radios or anything, just work and studies and those damn therapy sessions, those questions, prodding, making me think of things I didn't want to ever remember. On and on until. . .”

“Until what?”

“I was curious and, like I said, bored.”

“So?” Teal asked, impatient. “You were bored. Big deal. A news flash. She was bored. What did you do about it?”

“I decided to spy on Posy and Dr. Foreman when Posy was in there alone.”

“How could you do that?” I asked.

“I found a way. There's a basement to the house. The door is on the other side and it was opened late one afternoon when I had some free time. 1 just wandered down the steps and in, almost as a way to escape the sun and heat as anything else. I heard voices and followed the sounds down to my right. There's a floor grate in Dr. Foreman's office. As soon as I knew what it was and where I was, I ran out. I was terrified of being discovered listening in. I didn't even know who was in there with her.”

“It couldn't have been me,” Mindy said quickly.

“No, it wasn't Mindy because she wasn't here yet. 1 didn't tell her anything about Posy for a while after she had arrived.”

“Almost a month after,” Mindy moaned.

“I'm not exactly used to trusting people,” Gia said.

“Wow,” Robin said. “Imagine, putting your own daughter through all this.”

“Your mother is putting you through it, isn't she?” Gia fired at her. She could be so mean and angry some-

times. It made me feel that if I brushed against her, she might explode and blow me up with her.

Robin was about to snap back at her, but hesitated, thought a moment, then relaxed her shoulders. “Yes, she is. Mother darling is doing exactly that.”

“Well, then it shouldn't surprise you. It shouldn't surprise any of us. Dr. Foreman believes in everything she does to us. She has this grand plan, this collection of theories. Every one of us is another case study for her. I once glimpsed at some papers on her desk and saw it.”

“Saw what?” I asked.

“She's writing about each of us all the time. We'll be collected in some book and she'll probably win some prize. And all at our expense!”

“Tell us more about Posy,” I said, folding my legs and squatting on the floor like a little girl who had asked to be told a story.

“I didn't get to know her all that well. Like Mindy says, she was always lying to me anyway. She was here a little over a month or so. One day she arrived with Dr. Foreman when she returned from one of her periodic trips away from the ranch. I came in from work and found her sitting right there.” Gia nodded at my bunk.

“She smiled at me and said, 'Hi, my name's Posy. Don't call me anything else, please.' You would never know she was sent here as any sort of punishment. Nothing bothered her. Everything was interesting to her. I got so I hated hearing the word. Interesting. 'Isn't this interesting?' 'Isn't that interesting?' ”

“What did she look like?” Teal asked, sitting beside me.

“She wasn't much bigger than I am,” Gia said. “I thought she was about twelve, but she swore she wassixteen, dark haired, pretty with soft brown eyes and a dimple in her right cheek. She liked to walk on her toes and said she was once taking ballet lessons.”

“Another lie, no doubt,” Mindy muttered.

“She swore it was true of course, like her swearing to anything meant anything,” Gia said, “but I had no other way to determine anything about her, not even her age.”

“Didn't you ask her why she was here? What she had done?” Robin asked.

“No.”

“No?”

“I didn't have to ask. She told me right away. She said she was here because she had trouble following rules. She claimed she just forgot all the time. She made it sound so innocent.”

“What rules?” I asked.

"Any rules. She said she just forgot and didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. She proved that by ignoring the rules here. She talked without permission when she first arrived and it did them no good to scream at her or punish her.

"She just looked at them with that same sweet smile on her face, making the buddies feel like they were the ones who were to be pitied.

“She never blamed anyone for anything no matter how cruel they were to her, including her monster of a mother.”

“Did you try to get her to stop thinking like that?” Teal asked.

“Of course. I tried to get her to see how stupid she was being by forgiving them or understanding them or calling them interesting. She would just say, 'They can't help it. They just like me so much they can't help trying to help me.' For